Palace gives positive summing up of 2014

COMPARATIVE RECAP: Ringing a positive Christmas note, Malacañang trotted out comparative figures this week in the Official Gazette showing a statistical selfie of sorts of its accomplishments toward the end of year 2014.

To have some kind of base, the Palace compared what it has accomplished to what previous administrations had. Here goes:

• Average GDP (Gross Domestic Product) Growth:

2007 to 2nd Quarter 2010 — 4.6 percent VS 3rd Quarter 2010 to 2013 — 6.0 percent.

• PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange) Index:

Closing value on June 29, 2010 — 3,372.71 VS Closing value as of Dec. 19, 2014 — 7,125.63.

• Credit Rating:

Speculative Grade before VS Investment Grade now, to wit —

>Fitch Ratings: Previous BB Stable to BBB Stable now.

>Standard & Poor’s: Previous BB Stable to BBB Stable now.

>Moody’s: Previous Ba3 Stable to Baa3 Stable now.

• Net Foreign Direct Investments (FDI):

Full year 2009 — $2.06 billion VS Full year 2010 — $1.07 billion. First three quarters of 2014 — $4.88 billion.

• Tax Effort (Tax Revenue-to-GDP Ratio):

Full year 2009 — 12.2 percent, and Full year 2010 — 12.1 percent VS Full year 2013 — 13.3 percent.

• CCT Beneficiaries:

In July 2010 — 786,523 households VS As of Nov. 26, 2014 — 4,478,562 households and homeless street families.

• PhilHealth Coverage (beneficiaries):

As of December 2010 — 47.07 million VS As of August 2014 — 81.76 million.

• Employment Rate:

October 2009 — 92.9 percent VS October 2014 — 94.0 percent.

• Education Sector:

2010 — P225.1-billion budget VS 2014 — P383.1-billion budget.

From 2005 to June 2010 — 17,305 classrooms built VS From July 2010 to end-2013 — 66,813 classrooms.

• Tourist Arrivals:

2009 — 3,017,099 VS 2013 — 4,681,307.

–Federico D. Pascual Jr. (The Philippine Star)